{"id":11431,"date":"2012-09-26T02:14:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=11431"},"modified":"2012-09-26T02:14:04","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:14:04","slug":"what-im-doing-on-my-sorta-vacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/26\/what-im-doing-on-my-sorta-vacation\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’m doing on my sorta vacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m doing on my summer<\/del> fall vacation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

First I fixed a broken gun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s an old .22 single-action plinker<\/a> probably not worth a gunsmith’s fee. That morning I met someone who claimed to be a gunsmith and he was such an ass & irritated me so much I finally tore into the thing myself. It was either fix it or get one of these<\/a>. Which I really don’t need.<\/p>\n

Maybe I didn’t really have to tear it down into such itty-bitty pieces; I don’t know. This hoogie-ma-jigger here turned out to be the whole problem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead of turning the cylinder (its job), it was keeping the cylinder from turning. It also kept me from being able to remove the cylinder to see what it was hanging up on. Taking the gun apart was educational. Putting the hammer and trigger back together was like getting a Ph.D. in cussing. But I did it. Works now. Pretty proud of me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Then the back fence and the tree came down. Somebody else did the work. I just helped with the Heaping Up of Things. That and shouting, “OMG!” at the most hair-raising moments. I’m sure he found that helpful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Monday I went to the beach. I laugh at your assumptions about bikinis and sunlit basking. This is a scary gray beach where you see sights like this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And where you find the unexpected sitting on the sand (the chair, not the dog).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The place made me feel like writing ghost stories. If ever there was a haunted beach, it’s this one.<\/p>\n

Ava carried our picnic lunch on the walk out. After we ate cold chicken breast and veggies, I removed her backpack and leash and she did zoomies like a crazed puppy the entire mile back to the car.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Yesterday I commenced the Official Organizing of Stuff (the ostensible purpose of this entire week’s break). I began with guns, ammo, and gear. It took all day.<\/p>\n

Not because I have so many guns, mind you, though I’m sure I have enough to make some guy in Boston<\/a> think I’m a dangerous, paranoid weirdo.<\/p>\n

If I were really a sufficiently paranoid weirdo, I’d take better care of these things. The reason it took all day was that it took at least half the day to find everything. Much of the other half was taken up re-labeling mystery boxes and cleaning guns that have lain neglected at the backs of closets ever since I moved back from the desert two years ago.<\/p>\n

You do not leave guns unprotected in random places in the NorthWET. They rust. Fortunately, only a few were affected and those not too badly. A.G.’s WD-40 trick took care of that little problem. (And not to worry, I used WD-40 only on the exteriors. Despite the miraculous wonderfulness of WD-40 — it being one of the four fundamental forces keeping the universe intact and functioning — I know it’s a Foul Sin Against Nature to apply it to gunworks.)<\/p>\n

In case you ever need to know, a toothbrush and a slightly dull fileting knife will get dog hair out of shotgun mechanisms. Okay, maybe you wouldn’t recommend that method for your $6,000 engraved Italian sporting clays gun, but it works in a pinch. <\/p>\n

I realize this all sounds terrible, as if I’ve been some sort of sloven, letting my gear get so foul it can only be scraped clean with a knife. But trust me, most<\/i> of the gear was well stored and in good shape despite my best efforts to neglect it and lose track of it. And I’m joking about the knife. Mostly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wrapped up with the Glock and my brother’s old Cub Scout .22 that I somehow inherited.<\/p>\n

The Organizing of Stuff is a nasty job because you have to make a huge mess hauling things out, sorting, and cleaning them before you actually get anywhere. So there you are, trying to solve casual, but mostly hidden, disorganization by creating total chaos from one end of your life to the other. Ugh.<\/p>\n

But it feels good when it’s done.<\/p>\n

Well, except for those “what on earth is this?” items and those “I thought I had that but where could I possibly have put it?” items. And worst of all the “I don’t dare throw this out, but where the heck am I going to put it?” items.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m doing on my summer fall vacation First I fixed a broken gun. It’s an old .22 single-action plinker probably not worth a gunsmith’s fee. That morning I met someone who claimed to be a gunsmith and he was such an ass & irritated me so much I finally tore into the thing myself. It was either fix it or get one of these. Which I really don’t need. Maybe I didn’t really have to tear it down into such itty-bitty pieces; I don’t know. This hoogie-ma-jigger here turned out to be the whole problem. Instead of turning the…<\/p>\n

Continue readingWhat I’m doing on my sorta vacation<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14,19,31,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns-and-gun-rights","category-home-improvement","category-miscellaneous","category-rural-and-small-town-living","category-travels","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}